Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

i24 News – Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s powerful de-facto ruler, will not agree to forge formal relations with Israel before Palestinians get statehood, a key former official said Monday.

The message came from Dr. Nawaf Obaid, a former advisor to the Saudi government, in an article for the Palestinian al-Quds newspaper.

The ex-official added that Israel’s current policy toward Palestinians was not conducive to normalization with Saudi Arabia.

Obaid said that the crown prince had worked on the Palestinian issue and been in touch with both sides to the conflict.

He also noted that the Saudi public was still far from supporting the idea of Israeli-Saudi normalization.

While Israel recently normalized ties with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan, Saudi Arabia welcomed the accords but did not follow suit.

Days before the March 23 elections, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that, if elected, he would deliver Israelis direct flights between Tel Aviv and Saudi Arabia.

However, earlier reports suggested that an Israeli-Saudi normalization was unlikely under King Salman bin Abdulaziz.